Steve Buys the Books

After their first visit to the storefront, Chuck, Steve, and Bruce each got an opportunity to see the Swami upstairs in his apartment.

Steve:  I was on my lunch hour and had to be back in the office very soon.  I was dressed in a summer business suit.  I had planned it so that I had just enough time to go to the storefront and buy some books, then go to lunch and return to work.  At the storefront, one of the Swami’s followers said that I could go up and see the Swami.  I went upstairs to his apartment and found him at his sitting place with a few boys.  I must have interrupted what he was saying, but I asked him if I could purchase the three volumes of the Srimad-Bhagavatam.  One of the devotees produced the books from the closet opposite Prabhupada’s seat.  I handled the books – they were a very special color not usually seen in America, a reddish natural earth, like a brick – and I asked him how much they cost.  Six dollars each, he said.  I took twenty dollars out of my wallet and gave it to him.  He seemed the only one to ask about the price of the books or give the money to, because none of the others came forward to represent him.  They were just sitting back and listening to him speak.

“These books are commentaries on the scriptures?” I asked, trying to show that I knew something about books.  Swamiji said yes, they were his commentaries.  Sitting, smiling, at ease, Swamiji was very attractive.  He seemed very strong and healthy.  When he smiled, all his teeth were beautiful, and his nostrils flared aristocratically.  His face was full and powerful.  He was wearing an Indian cloth robe, and as he sat cross-legged, his smooth-skinned legs were partly exposed.  He wore no shirt,

but the upper part of his body was wrapped with an Indian cloth shawl.  His limbs were quite slender, but he had a protruding belly.

When I saw that Swamiji was having to personally handle the sale of books, I did not want to bother him.  I quickly asked him to please keep the change from my twenty dollars.  I took the three volumes without any bag or wrapping and was standing preparing to leave, when Swamiji said, “Sit down,” and gestured that I should sit opposite him like the others.  He had said “Sit down” in a different tone of voice.  It was a heavy tone and indicated that now the sale of the books was completed, I should sit with the others and listen to him speak.  He was offering me an important invitation to become like one of the others, who I knew spent many hours with him during the day when I was usually at my job and not able to come.  I envied their leisure in being able to learn so much from him and sit and talk intimately with him.  By ending the sales transaction and asking me to sit, he assumed that I was in need of listening to him, and that I had nothing better in the world to do than to stop everything else and hear him.  But I was expected back at the office.  I didn’t want to argue, but I couldn’t possibly stay.  “I’m sorry, I have to go,” I said definitely.  “I’m only on my lunch hour.”  As I said this, I had already started to move for the door, and Swamiji responded by suddenly breaking into a wide smile and looking very charming and very happy.  He seemed to appreciate that I was a working man, a young man on the go.  I had not come by simply because I was unemployed and had nowhere to go and nothing to do.  Approving of my energetic demeanor, he allowed me to take my leave.